Museum Hundertwasser

The Museum Hundertwasser im KUNST HAUS WIEN was founded by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, one of the most important Austrian artists of the twentieth century. This unique museum is situated near the Hundertwasserhaus and upholds the philosophical and creative principles of this famous and exceptional artist.

The Museum Hundertwasser unites the most important aspects of his oeuvre and exhibits the largest collection in the world of his paintings, printed graphics, tapestries and architectural designs. Vienna’s first “green museum” also gives its visitors the chance to experience Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s visionary ecological commitment – he experimented with grass roofs and planted trees in building façades. Over and above this, the KUNST HAUS WIEN is Vienna’s premier house for photography exhibitions.

A major part of the effect of Hundertwasser's painting is color. Hundertwasser uses colors instinctively, without associating them with any sort of symbolism, either traditional or self-invented. He prefers intense, radiant colors and loves to place complementary colours next to one another ...

Hundertwasser mastered and innovated many graphic techniques, among them lithograph, silk screen, etching, color woodcut and others. He was one of the first artists to demand and practice complete transparency in terms of technique, dates of creation and editions for each sheet ...

Hundertwasser's first tapestry, 133 Pissing Boy with Skyscraper, was created in 1952 as the result of a bet. Hundertwasser had asserted that it was possible to weave a tapestry without a cartoon, i.e., a full-size cardboard model of the image that serves as template for the planned tapestry ...

Starting with the Mouldiness Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture, in which he opposed the “straight line” and demanded freedom to build for all people in 1958, Hundertwasser followed up with Speech in the Nude for the Right to a Third Skin and the manifesto Loose from Loos, increasingly and ever more profoundly writing against the building culture at the time ...

Hundertwasser’s popularity is not only based on the mass appeal of his paintings and his visionary architecture, but today more than ever also on his active dedication to and many interventions on behalf of comprehensive nature- and environment protection. Just like he showed the people possibilities of a better world and finding a way back to paradise in his pictures ...